While traveling this summer, your kids might get a bit anxious and unsettled staying in unfamiliar surroundings. Make a point to become Travel Pen Pals. You can leave hidden pictures, love notes, and letters for each other to find under a pillow at night or under a breakfast dish in the morning. It’s a great way to share feelings — or just spread a little love. You can create your own letter-writing kit before you leave home, to be sure you’ll have everything you need. (Read how one dad even used this note approach throughout the year to connect with his son during a busy time at work.)

Choose a special person whom your child misses while “on the road,” and talk about what the child would like to write about in a special letter. Then have your child stamp the message – letter by letter – in all sorts of fun colors and mail it.

If your summer trips have you visiting relatives you don’t often get to see, you can have your child play “Mail Carrier” and slide notes and pictures under their doors. The recipients can choose a family member, add their own message on the back side, and leave it in a designated place for your child to collect and re-distribute.

Staying close to home this summer? No problem. Your kids can join in the writing fun, too!

Have your children use their imaginations to design and write out their own customized postcards using cardstock, scissors, markers, and stickers. Get creative!

Children can:

Create their own pretend-play adventure, complete with a picture and story of a real place they’ve visited in the past or would like to visit one day

Pretend to be a favorite character from a book, a movie, or an imaginary world

Draw a scene from your house and tell a story of what he or she has done so far this summer

After spending some creative playtime designing and writing a story on the postcard, let your child put a stamp on, address the card, and put it in a mailbox to send off to a relative or a school friend. Get all the details for this Postcard Art Project here.

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If you’re headed out on a VACATION, don’t miss our special “On the Go with Melissa & Doug” summer series. Our travel pros are sharing their secrets for packing and getting ready before your trip, creative ways to keep your child entertained while traveling, and ideas for making your family vacation one to be remembered! It’s all at our Melissa & Doug “On the Go” hub and our Traveling with Kids Pinterest board.

And if you’re on a STAYCATION, be sure to check out our “Summer Fun” calendar and Summer Pinterest board — each full of educational activities, crafts, games, and more to keep your children busy and learning this summer.